The Night I Fell in Love
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"The Night I Fell in Love" is the penultimate song on the Pet Shop Boys Release (2002) album. It was written by group member Neil Tennant.
The slow song describes a homosexual encounter between a young boy (telling the story) and his idol after a show. The idol is never named, but several references in the lyrics, e.g. to Dr. Dre and homophobia, make it easy to identify him as rapper Eminem. The most obvious reference is:
- Then he joked "hey man,
your name isn't Stan, is it?
We should be together!"
very clearly referring to the Eminem song "Stan", even borrowing a line from it.
Tennant wrote the song after hearing Eminem defending his often homophobic lyrics with representing someone else, i.e. the homophobia in society. Tennant took the other way, as "there obviously are gay rap stars". Eminem has not commented on the song. Dr. Dre said he was amused by hearing it, and that there might be a backlash. If so, it is yet to come. [1] (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1453441/20020416/pet_shop_boys.jhtml?headlines=true)
The reference to "Stan" also makes the song a rare example of a double answer song, because Eminem there refers to another song, "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins.